Open | Filmmaker Magazine

SUNDANCE WRAPS

Following a Saturday evening awards ceremony, Sundance wrapped its 10-day run today with a series of award-winner screenings on Sunday. At the Saturday event, the drama Padre Nuestro, directed by Christopher Zalla, was announced winner of the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The Documentary Grand Jury Prize went to Jason Kohn‘s Brazil-set corruption saga Manda Bala (Send a Bullet). Audience prizewinners included James C. Straus‘s John Cusack-starrer Grace Is Gone for the Dramatic Audience Award and Documentary Audience Award recipient Hear and Now from Irene Taylor Brodsky. The complete list of awards is available on the festival website. After the awards […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 29, 2007

Christopher Zalla, Padre Nuestro

PADRE NUESTRO. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Padre Nuestro exemplifies the modern, international face of American independent cinema: the first-time director, Christopher Zalla, was born in Kenya, raised overseas (and is fluent in Spanish), schooled at Columbia, and created a stylish thriller that begins in Mexico and winds up in New York City. A smart film that — one could argue — uses its border-hopping protagonist’s stolen identity as a metaphor for globalization, Padre Nuestro will certainly spark debate at Sundance. Padre Nuestro screens at Sundance in dramatic competition. Can you say a little bit […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2007

Dan Bush, David Bruckner, and Jacob Gentry, The Signal

THE SIGNAL. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Making a feature film, independent or otherwise, isn’t easy (understatement of the century). The seemingly impossible hurdle of gaining financing — not to mention the tiny details of actually executing the film and then seeking distribution — seem Herculean enough to scare off most would-be filmmakers. Now imagine directing a feature film with two other directors. Suicidal, right? Well, that’s exactly what three of Atlanta’s finest — Dan Bush, David Bruckner, and Jacob Gentry — did. The ballsy trio arrives at Sundance with their terrifying horror film, The […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2007

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

After ten years of trying to get in on screen and months of controversy (Peter Bowen blogs about the latest hubbub) leading up to its Sundance premiere, Deborah Kempmeier’s southern tale Hounddog was unveiled last night. I guess I should first get out of the way the infamous rape scene that everyone (even if they haven’t seen it yet) wants to talk about. The scene – though in the context of the movie is appalling – is quite tame. Created in the editing room with shots of Dakota Fanning’s face, reactions of the young boy Buddy (Cody Hanford) watching, and […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 23, 2007

MARRIAGE TAX

What are the odds that 2007 would see not one but two documentaries about people whose lives and relationships are transformed when they are blinded by acid thrown in their faces? Gary Tarn’s brilliant Black Sun, which Peter Bowen has written about for the current issue of Filmmaker, uses the attack on writer Hugues de Montalembert as an opportunity to consider the subject of sight in all its dimensions – practical, philosophical and even ethical. Dan Klores’s Crazy Love (produced and co-directed by Fisher Stevens) takes a different approach. Such issues of sight and seeing are almost afterthoughts in what […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2007

SCHOOL SHOOTER SHUT DOWN

Boing Boing has been covering this week the controversy surrounding the Slamdance Film Festival’s rejection of a video game, Super Columbine Massacre, from its interactive competition, the Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition. Here is Slamdance’s official statement: The Super Columbine Massacre RPG game has been withdrawn from Slamdance ’07. While understanding the different positions people have already taken with the game, we want to express the struggle we had with ours. On one hand, a jury selected a game they believed merited programming, a decision that always leads to our organization supporting the creator’s independent vision and freedom of expression. On […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2007

DREAMING

I don’t post a lot of rumors on this blog, but this one is cool. Ain’t It Cool News linked to Film Ick which linked to this article in New Zealand’s Stuff, in which Kirsten Dunst discusses an upcoming film role: Her only project on the horizon is with visionary French director Michel Gondry, whom she worked with on Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. “[It’s] about somebody who everybody knows, but I can’t say who it is,” Dunst teases, before admitting her character is a “well-known singer”, giving credence to reports that she is to play a very abstract […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2007

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST ANNOUNCES ’07 SLATE

Running March 9-17 in Austin, Texas, SXSW announced its Opening Night Film will be Scott Frank‘s crime thriller The Lookout, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher and Jeff Daniels. Other titles playing at the fest include Dollan Cannell‘s 638 Ways To Kill Castro, Lauren Lazin‘s The Last Days of Left Eye and Joe Swanberg‘s Hannah Takes The Stairs. And a panel that’s sure to draw attention will be a case study on the YouTube craze Lonelygirl 15. The three creators will be present.

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 3, 2007

GARRETT SCOTT DOCUMENTARY DEVELOPMENT GRANT

Thom Powers emailed the below, an announcement of the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, so created in memory of the talented documentary filmmaker and wonderful, passionate and engaged person who passed away this past Spring. What: This grant funds first time documentary makers for travel and accommodations at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, April 12-15, 2007. For four days, grant recipients will be given access to films, participate in master classes and be mentored by experienced filmmakers. TWO filmmakers will be chosen for the grant in its first year. Deadline: Applications must be postmarked by February 5. Applicants will […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 24, 2006

A NEW HUMANITY

If you only bookmark this blog and don’t regularly check out the main page, click over to Jason Guerrasio’s web-only interview with Alfonso Cuaron, whose Children of Men opened yesterday. Here’s Cuaron in an excerpt: I hope young people will see this film. I mean my generation, we blew it. I think we grew up in a world that was pre-idyllic, and we saw the world collapse in front of us and we tried to believe that it was not our fault, that it was not our responsibility. We felt powerless about the situations as if they were very overwhelming […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 23, 2006

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